Dr. Callahan’s research focuses on how neonatologists and parents use genetic information to make medical decisions and conceptualize patients’ futures. This focus emerges at the intersection of her work as a neonatologist and ethicist and her longstanding interest in the integration of genetic information into complex medical practice. In residency, she began to explore the limitations of genetic prognostication through the lens of Down syndrome. Working as a neonatologist, she has witnessed both the benefits and potential confusion and harms that can result from genetic testing in this context. She has leveraged these experiences to research agenda aimed at maximizing benefit and minimizing harm of complex genetic information in the neonatal intensive care unit.

To set the groundwork for this pursuit, she conducted a split sample psychological experiment demonstrating that neonatologists applied genetic findings, including uncertain genetic findings or those heralding neurodevelopmental impairment, in biased and problematic ways. She has quantified variation in genetic testing between different children’s hospitals, revealing dramatic and increasing variation. This reflects lack of consensus about how to harness evolving genetic technologies. Dr. Callahan completed a systematic review of clinical utility measures neonatal genomics. This work documented shortcomings of current measures that she is working to mitigate in developing a new metric, currently under study. Her current work, supported by a K01 award from the NHGRI, focuses on managing the uncertainty of genetic information to make it most useful to neonatologists and parents.

Dr. Callahan has also explored the parent-perceived value of other types of medical information. She recently completed a study ranking the outcomes of chronic lung disease that are most important to parents and is continuing this work to develop parent-important pulmonary metrics. Most broadly, she hopes her work will align complex medical information with outcomes that are meaningful to patients and their families.

AB, Princeton University (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology), 2011

MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Medicine), 2016

MSME, University of Pennsylvania (Ethics), 2023

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Attending Physician

American Academy of Pediatrics, 2015-

American College of Medical Genetics, 2015-

American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, 2021-

STAT Wunderkind, STAT News, 2023

National Human Genome Research Institute Inter-Society Coordinating Committee for Practitioner Education in Genomics Scholar, 2021

Eastern Society for Pediatric Research Travel Grant Awardee, 2020

Women in Neonatology (AAP Section) Travel Grant Awardee, 2020

Neonatology Fellows Research Fund Recipient, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 2020

Edward Curnen Prize for Compassion and Humanity in Medicine, 2019

Distinguished Research in Clinical Science, Columbia University Residency Forum, 2019

Helen and Harold Harrison Prize for Outstanding Proficiency in Pediatrics, 2016

Alpha Omega Alpha, 2016

CHD-CORD: Clamp OR Delay among neonates with Congenital Heart Disease
UG3HL166794
2024- 2030
Role: Collaborator, Percent effort: 5%

Managing the Uncertainty of Genetic Information in Neonates
K01 HG013114
2023-2028
Role: Principal Investigator, Percent effort: 75%

Parent-Important Outcomes Measures in Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia
Marshall Klaus Neonatal-Perinatal Research Award, American Academy of Pediatrics
2022-2024
Role: Principal Investigator